Cats normally exhibit certain behaviors when eliminating waste. These behaviors begin with a search for a suitable material upon which to urinate or defecate. Once the cat selects the appropriate material, the cat will attend to dig a shallow depression. After elimination, many cats with dig again to attempt to cover up the waste.
Indoor cats are expected to use litter boxes for this purpose. A litter box generally comprising an open vessel containing a quantity of animal litter. Many animal litters are known in the art, these including litters having both organic sorbents and inorganic sorbents, and having the form of non-clumping and clumping animal litters.
Some cats, unfortunately, do not reliably use the litter box. Inappropriate elimination is a leading cause of cat relinquishment to shelters. Outside of spraying, two main drivers of inappropriate elimination are medical issues and behavioral issues. Among behavioral issues, litter aversion and litter preference are the main drivers. Litter aversion syndrome is a behavioral issue where cats will display one or more of several undesirable behaviors, such as depositing waste outside of the litter box, shaking paws after existing the litter box, standing on the edge of the litter box, running away from the litter box, or crying when near the litter box. The acceptability of the litter can be affected by the odor and the texture of the litter. Both heavily perfumed litters and litters with accumulated waste product can be repelling to cats, with ammonia, in particular, contributing to the offensive order emitted by litter boxes. In the past, there have been efforts to add materials to cat litter to increase the attractiveness of the litter to the cat. For example, catnip and certain other plants emit nepetalactone, an oil that creates an arousal response in cats. Nepetalactone, however, does not appear to assist with desired elimination behavior, and may encourage additional unsuitable behaviors.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a litter that is attractive to cats, and an attractant to increase the appeal of known litters.